Investigating how environmental change affects benthic biogeochemistry

Microscopic plants, or phytoplankton, use the sun's energy to combine atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and water to produce particulate organic matter (POM). A proportion of this sinks to the seabed, where bacteria and animals use it for energy production, maintenance of biomass and growth. These organisms maintain a strict balance of carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in their tissues. Their growth can thus be limited by any of these substrates, depending on the quantity and biochemical composition, or 'quality', of the POM available. Limitation by a single substrate necessitates that all others are in excess and must therefore be released to the environment. This can be achieved by adjusting the efficiencies with which C and N are assimilated or by liberating them as CO2 or dissolved inorganic N (DIN). It follows that the quantity and quality of POM arriving at the seabed, and the dietary demands of its inhabitants, influence the fate of C and N in marine sediments. Any POM that escapes ingestion, or that which is released as faecal pellets, may persist in the sediments for thousands of years. Geological storage of POM in marine sediments represents a means by which the ever-increasing atmospheric concentration of CO2 can be reduced. However, it also removes N from the biosphere. This reduces the potential for further phytoplankton growth, which is limited by the supply of DIN. If DIN was only supplied via the recycling of POM in marine sediments, it follows that a sustained net biological drawdown of atmospheric CO2 into the oceans can only occur when the C:N ratio of the POM arriving at the seabed is greater than the ratio of CO2:DIN released. Essentially nothing is known about how POM quantity and quality affect the offset between these ratios, or how it is liable to change in the future. Manmade nutrient enrichment and climate change are already changing the quantity and quality of POM arriving at the seabed, but we do not understand, or have the capacity to predict, how this influences the roles that marine sediments play in C storage and DIN release. In turn, this greatly restricts our ability to accurately represent the cycles of C and N in global models that are designed to make meaningful forecasts about future climate change. I will grow species of phytoplankton with different ratios of C, N and PUFAs, which therefore differ in terms of their quality. The C and N in the phytoplankton will be replaced with 13C and 15N, stable isotopes (SIs) of these elements that behave in an identical manner, but differ subtly in their mass. They are scarce and hence easy to follow in the natural environment. My research will, for the first time, introduce increasing quantities of the different, dual SI-labelled algae onto the seabed and follow the fate of 13C and 15N into 13CO2, DI15N, bacterial and animal biomass and the sediments, thereby providing a detailed insight into the ways in which the quantity and quality of POM influence the burial of C and the release of DIN. The experiments will be conducted in coastal and deep-sea (> 1 km deep) habitats as these are considered to be the most important areas for global seabed C turnover. My research will also provide information on the relative roles that bacteria and animals play in elemental cycling in shallow and deep-water habitats, a topic that currently remains hotly debated. The ultimate goal of this project is to generate a mechanistic understanding of the ways in which POM quantity and quality affect the fate of C and N in marine sediments. This will be used to produce a mathematical model that is capable of predicting the quantities of C stored, and DIN released by the seabed, given a known quantity and quality of POM. This will represent a significant step towards being able to accurately represent the role of marine sediments in global climate models.